Greetings and hellos all my brothers and sisters. I'm a private user establishing his first indoor grow room for personal use, and this will be my grow journal. At the moment, I have seeds that I ordered online that will be arriving in the next 2 weeks, but I'm also starting this now for input into my setup and suggestions that any of you may have.

I'm a scientist by trade, so I'm trying to be as exact as possible when it comes to the technical specifications of my grow area. So far, I have procured a grow light with a switchable ballast. That is, I have 2 Metal Halide bulbs that will go in it for the vegetative stage, as well 2 High Pressure Sodium bulbs that will go in the same ballast when it is time for flowering. Both are 1000W in size. For those not in the know, metal halide bulbs produce light at the proper frequency for vegetative growth, whereas high pressure sodium bulbs are excellent for flowering.

My intention is to shoot for 3 plants this first go round. With any luck one of them will be a fine lady. In particular, I'm trying the Caramelicious strain, an Indica/Sativa cross that has a decent yield but evidentially is good for a "first crop". I have a small propagation kit that will house my seedlings in rockwool cubes until such time they are ready for their final homes.

To this end, I have purchased some sterile organic soil, along with a large container of worm castings. Truthfully, I was considering growing in pure castings, but I wasn't sure if this would be advisable, so I figured that would be my first question to all of you. Do you think there would be any adverse affect to growing in pure worm castings, as some have suggested to me?

Furthermore, one of my other reasons for growing this strain is its unique smell. That is, rather than the usual skunk effect, this Caramelicious produces a nice sweet aroma that doesn't seem as conspicuous (or so I'm told). Still, just to be cautious and courteous to my neighbors, I've attached a fan and vent system to my light ballast which is connected to an active charcoal filter (or will be I should say, it hasn't arrived yet).

Finally, my room will be set off with a nice CO2 generator to assist with plant growth. Well, in a proper sense it's a propane heater that while burning produces carbon dioxide, but you see where I'm going with this.

Also, I'm using some highly diluted Earth Juice for my nutrient supply, mixed down to 25% strength as to not burn the plants chemically. I'm a little unsure about the feeding though. Do you guys think it's advisable to mix it in my water supply when I want to feed my plants, or would a spray bottle and "leaf feeding" be sufficient?

Anyway, stay tuned for pictures once I get the room completely setup. Any thoughts or criticisms are welcome, and I hope you enjoy this thread!

sounds like u know wot ur doing man


id have to say that the warm castings is used as a soil fertilizer so growing in it wouldnt be advised as the substrate would be to toxic for ur roots.......but i may be wrong there may be something new but i dont think so man!


also man are u going to extract the heat from the co2 unit?


aslo 1000 w lights are a bit high for growing in veg ....400 or 600w would be better!


peace and love
geeman

don't you mean proper color spectrum? white light is made up of many different frequencies, no?

are you going to be putting the rockwool cubes in the soil? if you do make sure to remove the wrapping to allow the cube to breath or it can hold too much water and cause problems.

also, don't forget to pre-soak your rockwool. it can cause pH problems, so you might reconsider using it.

pure worm castings would be bad. they retain water and get muddy which will drown the roots of your plants. cannabis likes wet/dry cycles.

also, pure worm castings would provide too much N i believe. i'd be careful with any advice from someone telling you to use only castings.

i would assume that you are aware that co2 works better in a sealed room with slightly elevated temps. if you are running exhaust you are going to be wasting your co2. you should really worry about getting dialed in before messing with co2. if you are not dialed in you won't know if the co2 is doing a bit of good.

not only that, but co2 is toxic and can cause death to you and your plants.

you should start with 1/4 strength if you don't know where to start. i would think that the bottles or a feeding schedule on the website would tell you what to use and when.

the 1/4 strength will not suffice as your plants get big. that's what the schedule if for. if you don't have any experience you probably don't want to start messing with variables but keep it simple.

you always mix your nutes in water, and NEVER mix them together without adding them to the water.

good growing!


-shake

__________________
"happy trees"

troubleshooting form

"some of my sweets be tight and some of my sweets be fucked up, but all of my sweets gon' blow so killa smoke gets sucked up..." -Bun B

"But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security." -Deceleration of Independence

@ F1SEEDS - Thanks for the well wishes my friend. I'll stick to my original plan and do a 30/70 castings-to-organic soil mix. I had no idea it would be so rough on it to grow directly in castings, and truthfully I like the idea of having micronutrients that may not necessarily be in the castings that I would find in soil instead. Stay tuned, my first pics should be coming next week of the overall setup.

@headshake - Quite a few there, and I appreciate it all. I'll try and clarify everything you rightly mentioned. Regarding the color spectrum, you are 100% absolutely right and I'm sorry I missed that. LOL. Indeed I was trying to mention the light spectrum emission rather than the frequency of the light in question.

Regarding the rockwool cubes, I'm still new to this concept. What should I soak them in prior to my germination? I was hoping to plant them directly in the soil upon completion of the germination stage, so I'm still learning on this aspect. What would you suggest in terms of methodology?

Regarding the CO2 situation, that is once it's been in place for quite some time and I have proper ventilation established. I don't plan on tapping into it until my plants are showing real signs of taking off, and after I have a greater seal established for the entire room. And of course the excess heat from the propane system will be regulated heavily to make sure I'm not doing more harm than good.

Thanks for the input on nutes and their application. I'll be keeping an eye on the start level, but as you said 25% is what to go with in absence of experience with the formula. It will be nice and diluted in some clean water that I'm leaving sit out for 24 hours before use. This serves 2 purposes: it allows the chlorine and other nastiness added by man to evaporate mostly, and it allows the water to hit room temperature. I don't plan on cold shocking my plants with old water.


Fellas, thank you so much for the input and please, feel free to include more input at any time. I'm hoping to make this a community project and all are welcome to comment.

you have 2000 watts? talk about overkill for 3 plants. Those bitches will grow fast as hell with that kind of power esp if its 24/7.

Oh no friend, not 2000w of lighting! I meant that I had ordered 2 HPS and 2 Metal Halide bulb each, to be used one at a time. So it will still be 1000w output but that's about it. Sorry about the unclear language.

soak the rockwool in properly pH'd water. for soil you want to aim for 6.3 (ideal) to 6.8. soak them 'til they stay at this pH. (the water you squeeze out i guess. never used rockwool personally. you might want to look into rapid rooters instead. why the rockwool anyway?

i just germ my beans in a bag with a wet paper towel. from there i pop them into soil.

i would seriously rethink the castings thing. 30% is probably still too high. also, keep in mind that once they are in you can't get them out! this with the rockwool might mess with your N levels too. don't forget about perlite. most recommend 2/3 soil to 1/3 perlite.


-shake

__________________
"happy trees"

troubleshooting form

"some of my sweets be tight and some of my sweets be fucked up, but all of my sweets gon' blow so killa smoke gets sucked up..." -Bun B

"But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security." -Deceleration of Independence

30% is a bit to high. I used to use a ratio of 1 part castings, 3 parts perlite, 6 parts soil. The mix still felt like it needed more perlite too. You really noticed it when you got to the harvest flushes! I since gave up and went to a soilless mix straight out of the bag.

Be careful transplanting rockwool seedlings into dirt. Ive had issues with the moisture variances between the two mediums (Rockwool holds on to that moisture!) that has caused some transplant shock due to root issues. Just a heads up, it's not detrimental! (All plants recovered nicely )

Good luck!

So much great input from all you guys, and thank you for it all. Honestly, this being my first attempt, I had simply been doing as much research as I could and the general consensus had rockwool as being a "better" method than direct seed/towel germination. Of course I know there is no greater expert than personal experience, but I just assumed all the reading I was doing had me on the right path.

Clearly thou, I should reconsider the germination kit/rockwool approach and focus more on the germination-in-a-bag trick. I suppose I was getting too fancy for a first attempt anyway, and besides I can still cancel the order and just go a cheaper route (considering how much the overall setup already costs).

Keep em coming everyone, I need any and all advice I can get.

Hey guys, update time. Just a few general pictures of my tools and what I'll be using both in the beginning and later on in the grow. One of the photos includes the small propagation kit I intend to use for my seedling germination. It's not exactly a fancy, heated system but it's only my first attempt and I'm not sure how it's going to turn out.

Another one is of the Earth Juice nutrients I'll be using after about the first 20 days of vegetative growth. The "grow" variant seems just perfect, with an NPK ratio of 2-1-1 (Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphate, the macronutrients marijuana needs in it's growth cycle). I also have a small bottle of the micronutrient solution for the addition of the smaller and less significant (but still important) vitamins for my indica/sativa plant. Some examples of this include magnesium, boron, cobalt, iron, and zinc. I also have several large spray bottles that I'll be using to deliver them at incredibly low concentrations until I know how safe they are. Marijuana chemically burns rather easily so I'm going the safe route and mixing at about 25% strength from what the bottle recommends.

Also, you'll see here the table that my little buddies will be on initially, as well as the drain pan the gardening pots will be sitting in. That location isn't the permanent one, I just haven't finished construction of the main grow room, but I was just snapping photos and figured I'd include it.

Of final interest is the small CO2 delivery system I found for a couple of bucks at my local gardening shop. It's not as complex as a proper CO2 generator and doesn't offer the excess heat of a propane heater burning. Of course this won't actually be used until I get closer to flowering, but it seemed like an interesting find (and it was cheap).

Anyway, this is just the beginning. The lighting will be complete Thursday of next week, and I should have the duct run a few days after that. More pics to follow, and thanks to everyone for the support and input. Let me know what you think!!

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Update time again guys and gals. Just about ready to go around here. I finally have my seeds, my lights, and the ducting necessary. I've attached pics of some of my equipment, as well as where the table has been relocated. As you can see I have a plain, white walled room for reflective purposes. I also plan on coating the pan area in some basic mylar sheets I picked up for cheap here in town to get the max effect from my lighting.

Speaking of lighting, you can see I have both metal halide bulbs for vegetative growth and some good old fashioned 1000W High Pressure Sodium for when it's flowering time. The MH are the fat bulbs with a wide diameter, and the HPS are much more slim. I've got pics of both for comparison.

So this brings me to my last question. As you can see I've also attached a pic of my seeds, including my Carmalicious strain and a mixed bag of 20 "surprise" seeds. Now, keeping in mind that I have 1000w of lighting to work with, do you think I should throw caution to the wind and grow 4 plants instead of 3 initially? Like I said, which I have done a ton of reading this is still my first attempt so I don't want to waste seeds until I have a solid method, but at the same time 4 is a nice even number and I like increasing my female odds.

Comments welcome guys and gals, and thanks again!

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You may want to remove the fingerprint oil you're getting on that HPS bulb with some non-residue volatile solvent. Not supposed to handle them like that.

And unless you're using a tempered glass enclosed reflector/hood, I'd wear eye protection if you're even thinking about working with water, nutrients, etc. around an energized bulb. That'd be an unfortunate 911 call; blinded and busted in one fell swoop.

The drain pan's a fine idea, as long as you don't use it as a drain pan. There shouldn't be any standing water anywhere, and you don't want your plants to easily share contaminants/infections.

Stay safe,
Hermie.

You can always add it later as a top dressing or "tea." If it's mixed into your growing medium you are going to be stuck with it. Too much of it and your soil we be like slippery, wet clay. Drainage and proper aeration are critical, and worm poo can be problematic if you're over-zealous. Note that carinia offsets 10% worm poo with 3x as much perlite.

And if you're staying in dirt, use Rapid Rooters like Shake suggested. Almost foolproof. Unless you're growing hydroponically, starting in rockwool makes very little sense.

Bossy, ain't I?
DH

Not to worry friend, I had her cleaned up as soon as I handled the bulb. Although this is my first grow attempt, it's not my first handling of high intensity discharge lighting systems. Even a bit of oil from a person's fingertips can have bad results for the bulb (and given the expense of the bulbs why take a risk?).

And thanks for the personal health concerns. I already have my "nerd goggles" hanging from a post in my grow room for when it comes to water handling and nutrients and so on. Better safe than sorry.

Also, the drain pan was an improvised idea, mostly for germination and vegetative growth. After that they go on the floor on large sheets of isolated plastic and mylar, but not to worry, they will be spaced as to avoid sharing water conditions as you stipulated.


Not to worry friend, I like hearing different input on my methods and so on. So feel free to be as bossy as you'd like.

To address the rockwool, honestly I was going that route just based on reading I had done indicating it was the safest method for germinating without risking "transfer shock" when it was time to go to their homes. Of course I'm open to new ideas, and based on reactions here I may be inclined to go with rapid rooters per your suggestions.

OK, OK, all of you win. I won't go with a mixture of worm castings, but I'd still like to use them once they've taken root and are taking off. You guys have managed to scare me out of it. LOL. besides, better be safe than sorry anyway.

Keep all the feedback coming guys, I love getting different views on my methods BEFORE I get started.